The Nature of Revolution provides the first account of art and politics under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. James A. Tyner repositions Khmer Rouge artworks within their proper political and economic context: the materialization of a political organization in an era of anticolonial and decolonization movements. Consequently, both the organization's policies and practices?including the production of poetry, music, and photography?were incontrovertibly shaped by and created to further the Khmer Rouge's agenda.Theoretically informed and empirically grounded, Tyner's work examines the social dimensions of the Khmer Rouge, while contributing broadly to a growing literature on the intersection of art and politics. Building on the foundational works of theorists such as Jacques Ranciere, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin, Tyner explores the insights of Leon Trotsky and his descriptions of the politics of aesthetics specific to socialist revolutions. Ultimately, Tyner reveals a fundamental tension between individuality and bureaucratic control and its impact on artistic creativity and freedom.

About the Author
James A. Tyner is professor of geography at Kent State University. He is the author of thirteen books including War, Violence, and Population: Making the Body Count (Guilford Press, 2009), which received the AAG Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contribution to Geography. The author of numerous books, articles, and book chapters, he is the recipient of the Glenda Laws Award from the Association of American Geographers, among other honors.


Book Information
ISBN 9780820354392
Author James A. Tyner
Format Hardback
Page Count 208
Imprint University of Georgia Press
Publisher University of Georgia Press
Weight(grams) 450g